There are so many reasons to stop eating bananas. Banana plantations negatively impact tropical ecosystems, and small farmers can’t compete with multinational companies that promote overproduction of commodity crops lowering prices. All of these reasons are good enough to make me eliminate bananas from our family’s diet, but the carbon footprint of transporting these tropical fruits to my home Northern California and how such transportation benefits the oil industry is the final straw. I don’t care that Dole is offsetting banana transportation in Costa Rica; it is still unsustainable to eat tropical fruit on a daily basis in the Northern Hemisphere.

I can’t say my family has completely given up bananas; it’s just they’ve become a rare treat. We haven’t bought any bananas in two months, and we are finding other local sources for our potassium, such as Jerusalem artichokes. There is plenty of wonderful fall fruits closer to home for us to enjoy!